Not too difficult for a Friday, but very entertaining.
We have a theme of Brendan’s compatriot GEORGE BERNARD SHAW and his plays, including PYGMALION, SAINT JOAN, MAJOR BARBARA: I dare say I’ve missed some. Thanks to Brendan
| Across | ||||||||
| 9. | BEHAN | Dramatic Brendan, hard to get head around (5) H in BEAN (slang for head) – Brendan Behan was another Irish playwright |
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| 10. | EN ROUTE TO | Heading for tenure? Too disorganised (2,5,2) (TENURE TOO)* |
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| 11. | APPLECART | Helpful software about transport, something that bears fruit in market (9) CAR (transport) in APPLET (software) |
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| 12. | PERON | Human with no end of hubris becoming dictator (5) PERSON less [hubri]S |
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| 13. | BARBARA | Repeatedly obstruct a 26 across on stage (7) BAR twice + A; the definition referring to Shaw’s Major BarBara |
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| 15. | CLEMENT | Bond cut by M’s predecessor? That’s fair (7) L (letter before M) in CEMENT |
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| 17. | SONIC | Like some booms, not quite as enjoyable (5) SO NIC[e] |
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| 18. | ELI | Priest often in the limelight, delighting believers (3) The biblical priest is hidden in all three of limELIght, dELIghting and bELIevers and also, as Greensward points out, in thE LImelight |
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| 20,25. | SAINT BERNARD | One man and his dog coming to pass? (5,7) Just about a triple definition, St Bernard is a man, a breed of dog and a mountain pass; though the definitions overlap, as the dog is named after the pass, which is named after the saint |
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| 22. | LYRISTS | Records including your old string players (7) YR in LISTS (records) |
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| 26. | MAJOR | Tory leader‘s opposed to miner in speech (5) Sir John Major, former Tory leader and PM, and a contrast to the homophonic “minor” |
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| 27. | SEBASTIAN | As 20, be turned into martyr (9) Anagram of AS SAINT (20a) BE. The unfortunate St Sebastian was eseentially martyred twice: first by arrows (which he miraculously survived) and then by being clubbed to death |
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| 30. | PYGMALION | Mythological sculptor producing a sign after less than minute (9) Slightly less than PYGM[y] (minute, small) + A LION (zodiac sign) |
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| 31. | AGNES | Name enshrined in eternity as symbol of chastity (5) N in AGES; the name comes from a Greek word meaning pure or holy, and St Agnes is the patron saint of chastity. It’s also the name of one of Shaw’s elder sisters: she died of TB when he was 19. |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | ABBA | Rhyme scheme for group initially formed (4) Double definition: the Swedish group was named after the initial letters of its members names: Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid |
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| 2. | CHAPERON | Escort‘s car phone broken (8) (CAR PHONE)* |
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| 3. | ANNE | One-time ruler of style and manners, to some extent (4) Two (related) definitions: Queen ANNE is the one-time ruler, who gave her name to a style of furniture etc, and she is hidden in mANNErs |
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| 4. | SEPARATE | Different actor initially in role within grasp (8) A in PART, all in SEE (to grasp) |
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| 5. | CRITIC | Person watching play — could be endless pain in neck about it? (6) IT in CRIC[k] (I originally guessed EROTIC as meaning “about it”, but sadly it won’t parse) |
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| 6. | SUPPRESSOR | Have a drink with journalists or censor (10) SUP + PRESS + OR |
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| 7. | GEORGE | King acted madly in theatre, executed patron (6) The King in Alan Bennett’s The Madness of George III, and patron saint George, who was executed as a martyr |
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| 8. | JOAN | Old man’s sweetheart portrayed as 20 by 28 (4) References to the stereotypical old couple Darby and Joan, and Shaw’s play Saint Joan, about Joan of Arc |
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| 13. | BASIL | Name for boy, son protected by security (5) S in BAIL |
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| 14. | ACCESS ROAD | Way in which reforms scare cad so (6,4) (SCARE CAD SO)* |
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| 16. | TOTED | Bore young child with Guardian leader, say (5) TOT (child) + ED[itor] |
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| 19. | IMBIBING | I am popular around place for wine drinking (8) BIN (where wine is stored) in I’m BIG |
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| 21. | ITALIANS | Eg Romeo and Juliet miscast in it, alas (8) (IN IT ALAS)* – R & J is set in Verona |
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| 23. | REJIGS | With respect to dances, provides new arrangement (6) RE + JIGS |
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| 24. | SISKIN | Family supporting relative briefly as singer (6) SIS[ter] + KIN |
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| 26. | MAPS | Help for travellers, representatives covering area (4) A in MPS |
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| 28. | SHAW | Music critic consulted over Beethoven’s Fifth (4) Fifth letter of beetHoven n SAW (consulted). GBS started off as a theatre and music critic |
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| 29. | NOSY | Curious final parts in addition to serious play (4) Last letters of additioN tO seriouS plaY |
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Thanks both. Minor typo in 2d, H missing in anagram fodder
..which you fixed as I was typing!
Thanks Brendan and Andrew
Fairly straightforward, though I didn’t parse GEORGE, IMBIBING, or the first 4 letters of PYGMALION. Favourite was SUPPRESSOR.
Why “boy” in13d? The only BASIL I know is 69!
“The applecart” is by Shaw, I think.
As a sub-theme, GEORGE, BERNARD, JOAN, BASIL, CLEMENT, SEBASTIAN, ANNE, BARBARA and AGNES are all SAINTs.
I’ve checked – it’s “The Apple Cart”. It features the corporation “Breakages, Limited”.
Very enjoyable. Some great clues – I really liked 9a BEHAN and 5d CRITIC, both brilliant surfaces with a hint of &lit. And it’s always good to see crosswordland’s favourite priest ELI!
Many thanks Brendan and Andrew.
Anyone else start with BLONDIE for 15a?
(L in BOND + IE for “that’s”)
Thanks Brendan and Andrew.
In 18a, Eli is also hidden in thE LIm…
gladys @7. Yep! In 14d, I think the definition is “way in” not just “way”.
Lovely puzzle, thanks Brendan. And thanks Andrew for the blog
For once I spotted the theme, when I got BARBARA which linked so nicely with MAJOR.
Loved the way ELI (that old favourite) appeared in the following three words.
Thanks again B & A and keep safe everyone.
Lots of fun from Brendan today, and I spotted the GBS theme early on which helped a lot. Never saw all the saints though – well done Gladys @ 7. Needed Andrew’s help for IMBIBING. Thanks A and B.
Just lovely – many thanks, Brendan and Andrew.
Lovely puzzle.I was helped by the themes of Shaw and saints.
Thank you Brendan and Andrew.
Super stuff. I parsed 7d as ‘St George’ as the Patron saint with the ‘St’ being removed by beheading. It worked for me.
The Apple Cart rarely gets mentioned as one of GBS’s major works, but I think that it’s rather underrated.
I had pope at 8d (old man/pop and swEet heart), which prevented me getting peron so dnf. Are popes saints?
To be Shaw to be shore.Another gem from Brendan,
Well I solved it, and saw the themes, but never felt I was actually on Brendan’s wavelength, with several only partially parsed. Thank you Andrew for explaining the finer points of George, Joan, imbibing and Pygmalion, all of which I sort-of-knew were right but none of which I could convincingly sort out in detail!
I wasn’t totally sold on “so nice” = “as enjoyable” or “singer” for a random bird (is this like “flower” or “banker” for river, ie something no-one would ever use in real life?) but I really appreciated the novelty of some of these, such as playing with triplish definitions, quadruple “hidden words” and so on, as well as the nifty surfaces and the integration of the theme.
So this week we’ve had a ghost theme (Qaos), an overt theme where you didn’t really need to know about cricket but it helped a bit (Boatman) and a theme which was interlinked by clues and helpful to get. Bravo for the variety and ingenuity Guardian!
Thank you Brendan – a great work-out.
[Nitsuj @15 only if made so after the fact, but pretty much all the early ones were and a couple have received rapid promotion recently. It seems like it is becoming automatic and almost immediate nowadays, a bit like Speakers of the House of Commons being made peers…]
TheZed@17 has written what I thought but probably wouldn’t have bothered to write on my phone – although I’m happy with singer, flower etc. Favourite was the repeated Eli and the overall theme. Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.
@Gladys, yes I had blondie to start with.
I’ve never commented here before but I thought this was a particularly authoritative and informative explanation. Thank you Andrew.
PS Who else studied Major Barbara at A level?
WhiteKing @ 21 my husband said about 5 minutes ago, in reference to MB “I studied that at A level”.
The complete works, passed down, are about the house somewhere but if asked I could only name Pygmalion and Arms and the Man. So, not a great help, but managed to fill the grid albeit with George and Joan not properly parsed. Nice, though, to see the crusty old atheist socialist get a run, tho I had forgotten he started as a critic. Behan, too, was about the family bookcase. I learnt that chaparon can be spelt without a final e. Our house is called a Queen Anne villa, never could work out why. Hey ho. Thanks A and B.
I was another one misdirecting myself by thinking that the answer to 8d might be POPE, and having several answers already in which were saints’ names. Had completely missed the GBS theme, as I hadn’t solved 28d yet. A DNF therefore, just a couple hanging in the air…
what a delight. For once I got the theme, even before I finished. And then said to myself, “GEORGE must be around here somewhere,” then forgot it and never spotted it!
To reply to those who don’t like themes, I enjoy them in puzzles, concerts, folk music workshops and my address book, which is from the Metropolitan Museum of Arts gift shop years ago, and features paintings and artifacts having to do with writing and receiving letters, from many countries and centuries.
Multiple themes which I mainly missed but not too taxing! I enjoyed this and it was beautifully presented as was Andrews blog, which as ever I needed help with for several I biffed in without fully understanding the parsing. My favourites were BEHAN which despite the obvious reference I did not see immediately, PYGMALION once I had teased in out and MAJOR! Keep well all of you and regards from locked-down southern Spain.
Very many thanks Brendan and Andrew
nutty202 @ 20 welcome to the blog. Yes we are particularly lucky to have so many dedicated and helpful bloggers who never seem to let us down. Hope to see you again soon!!
Did anyone else have APPLETREE for 11a? It parses partly.
And — thank you Brendan and Andrew.
Another one here whom enjoyed this AND saw both themes. Plus knew of most the plays mentioned, having read Pygmalion (studied at school) and Major Barbara and read of Saint Joan. Didn’t know The Applecart. Was puzzled by how to parse of GEORGE till coming here, as I had forgotten about the madness thereof, and the film which I very much enjoyed seeing when it came out.
Thanks to Brendan for the fun and Andrew for the blog.
Valentine@28: yes, that was my first thought, but when I saw BARBARA at 13a, I guessed the theme (which is rare for me) and realised that it was going to be APPLE CART. I didn’t notice the secondary theme of saints, so failed to see why 7d was executed.
Delightful. I liked the cross-referencing, which made the puzzle interesting without suffering from having too much use of that device. I liked the ‘hint of &lit’ (as Lord Jim put it) in some clues – I noted CRITIC and PERON as being in that category.
I was happy with a songbird (SISKIN) being indicated by ‘singer’.
I particularly liked APPLECART, BARBARA, CLEMENT, CRITIC and TOTED.
Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.
Good stuff! Couldn’t parse the pygmy in PYGMALION. Many thanks to Brendan and Andrew.
Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.
Not on any wavelength at all today; how we change. There was nothing particularly impenetrable about this offering but it beat me all ends up. As a Shaw fan (I take an occasional dip into his oeuvre and even today find him fresh and original in his thinking) I am chopfallen to admit that the theme(s) passed me by. Particularly enjoyed SAINT BERNARD.
[Muffin@: thankd for the heads up yesterday about TMS – news to me]
[Now off to play golf.]
Unusually for me, I managed to spot the Shaw theme, and it helped with GEORGE and PYGMALION. Completely missed the saint theme (thanks, Gladys @4). Wonderful puzzle with lots of neat surfaces, not too difficult but none the worse for that. Thanks to Brendan, and I agree with nutty202’s assessment of the blog, so an enthusiastic thank you to Andrew.
I had pope too for 8d, but only temporarily, but ironically during its brief existence it helped with CLEMENT. Nice puzzle!
Hard on the heels of yesterday’s pleasure comes another delightful puzzle. We are spoilt. Lovely interlacing of themes and clues and some nice surfaces. I have only the sketchiest of GBS knowledge but did spot that theme and the memory was jogged which helped with JOAN and BARBARA. Didn’t notice the clutch of saints until I’d finished. (What might be the compound noun for a group of saints? A beatification, a canon, a blessing, a patience…).
Favourites today were BEHAN, SONIC, ELI, PYGMALION and CRITIC.
TheZed @17 ‘Flier’ is regularly used as an indicator for any bird and seems to be accepted and I’d view ‘singer’ (or ‘layer’ perhaps) as similarly acceptable alternatives.
Thanks Brendan and Andrew for the helpful blog
What Eileen said @12.
Thanks to Brendan and Andrew
Loved all of this. Thanks Brendan and Andrew. And to Alphalpha@33 for introducing me to the word ‘chopfallen’ which feels like a useful addition to my vocabulary!
Thanks both,
Wonderful puzzle. Anybody else spend too long trying to find a synonym for ‘patron ‘ beginning ‘Lear..’ at 7d?
Another BLONDIE fan, but quickly realised it was wrong when I had *R*T*B. Didn’t realise about Q ANNE Style.
I’m another misled by Pope. Seems reasonable enough if you’re not familiar with Shaw.A couple of others left too.
Thanks Brendan, I’m always happy to see one of your crosswords. For once the theme was familiar to me and that always helps. I was not familiar with BEHAN, however, and I appreciate Andrew’s parsing of PERON, SONIC, and the first part of PYGMALION.
I enjoyed this! My first two in were BEHAN PYGMALION, which had me thinking there might be a theatrical theme and so, like Tyngewick, I originally tried to work “Lear” into 7d. But after getting MAJOR, BERNARD and SAINT I saw the light, gleefully scouted round the grid to see where “barbara” “joan” and “Shaw” could be – & suddenly GEORGE was blindingly obvious! Mind you, I completely missed the saints: I simply assumed AGNES, BASIL, SEBASTIAN and ELI were characters in GBS plays I didn’t know…
Many thanks to Andrew for help completing some parsing, and to Brendan for a classy crossword.
Good stuff. The bottom half went in quite quickly, but got stuck on the north, especially north west. Brendan was of course a classic misdirection (am sure I’m not the only one who tried to fit in I or Me. Took a while for the penny to drop. Haven’t come across him for many a year; though like Shaw, an Irish playwright (among other things). Thanks to all.
PS I have a beautiful hardback volume of all Shaw’s plays which I inherited from my father. It was actually owned by Shaw. Not sure what it is worth, but not planning to part with it.
[Andrew @45
…and where exactly is it that you live?]
Nice try muffin!
I just wanted to say that since enjoying the crossword I have enjoyed just as much reading everything about the thematic content, only a fraction of which I noticed while solving. Thanks to all.
Fine puzzle which I made a pig’s ear of. I was another who solved 15 as BLONDIE, but stupidly tried to add it on my iPad by using the reveal button (sheer laziness). Boy, did I get a shock! Also, tried POPE at 8. Several others after that floored me too (BASIL, SHAW itself and PYGMALION). Needless to say, I – ahem – overlooked the theme.
Another saint to add to the list is Brendan himself, famous for his voyage across the Atlantic, which was recreated and written about by Tim Severin years ago in his book “The Brendan Voyage”, one of my favourite travel/adventure books growing up.
Great stuff. Hope I do better on the Prize tomorrow. Thanks, Brendan, Andrew and all you helpful commenters.
I decided that the theme was SAINTS and didn’t look for another. This meant that my LOI GEORGE was a guess and,once I’d filled it in, I saw the GBS one. I “did” MAJOR BARBARA as part of the Socialism in literature component of my Politics Degree. I must say that I’ve never liked SHAW and wouldn’t recommend his stuff. Some of which is virtually unreadable with ” Back to Methuselah” being the very worst.
Still, lovely crossword.
Thanks Brendan.
P.S. I had BLONDIE originally for 15ac and I tried to fit LEAR into 7dn. Glad to see I wasn’t alone.
Alan B @31: I wasn’t quite sure how to express what I called (@6) a “hint of &lit”. Perhaps “a suggestion of an extended definition” might have been better. You’re absolutely right that 12a PERON fits in that category.
There was a bit of a discussion of the term “&lit” on the Everyman blog last Sunday (3,830). Pierre (the blogger on that occasion) now uses “clue as definition” instead, and I’m inclined to agree that this is more self-explanatory and less obscure.
More importantly, all the pubs and restaurants have shut! What do we do now? More crosswords I suppose.
Thank you Brendan and Andrew.
A really enjoyable puzzle once I realised we weren’t in for past Prime Ministers, having not found Brown, Attlee etc.. Our headmistress used to write plays, performed at the school biennially, and sometimes Shaw came to see them – Prunella Scales would have remembered, sadly perhaps not now…
Lord Jim @51
Thanks for your response and for your lead to the Everyman blog. I too have that book by Ximenes and remember the bit where the author introduces and explains ‘&lit’. I do like the less opaque term used by Pierre!
Good fun from Brendan as always.
Thanks Andrew for the parsing of GEORGE and JOAN – in the former I split the definitions in the wrong place (St George is not the patron saint of theatre, that’s Genesius) and in the latter forgot D&J whilst sidetracked by ‘jo’ being ‘beloved one’ in Scots.
5-letter dictator beginning with P? Peron wasn’t my first thought.
Shaw wrote music criticism under the name “Corno di Bassetto”. He described Brahms’ German Requiem as “music to be borne with equanimity only by the corpse”. There are works by Brahms that I prefer too.
Got held up by 3d as ‘ERST’ (long ago; formerly) is hidden in there as well and seemed to fit ‘one time’ in the definition.
Thanks to Brendan.
A beaut. Thanks Brendan and Andrew for unpicking some innovative clues.
A lovely puzzle, of which, unusually, I twigged the theme early on. But I still managed not to finish, giving up on GEORGE after failing to get Lear to work. I must have been getting tired.
i looked in vain for Man and Superman, which I saw from the National Theatre a few years ago. It starred Ralph Fiennes. Despite his marathon efforts, and a warm critical reception, it merely confirmed for me Shaw’s reputation as a clever spinner of ideas rather than a convincing dramatist.
I was very pleased to slog my way to the finish line, having just moved on from Monday’s Vulcan/Chifonie. I thought it very fair and clever from Brendan. Of course, everybody else is saying ‘bit easy for a Friday’.
I’m another who had POPE at 8d. ONCE at 3d fitted but was unparsable. I tried VENUS at 31a and finally surrendered to the blog this Sunday morning. How do people decide when to call it a day? With 3 months self isolation looming, I suppose I’ll just keep going…
Brendan, I have a favour to ask you. In this time of isolation, I still have to write an article for my golf club’s newsletter here in Ontario, Canada. Since there is no golf stuff to write about, I would love to use your cryptic crossword from last July (#27,877) and see if I your lovely puzzle might inspire some new recruits to the genre, or if not, at least entertain some fellow members. It appeared again today in the Toronto Star which reminded me of how much I had enjoyed it when I solved it on line last July. The name I use when commenting on the daily Guardian crosswords is MarkOnCan, so you know this is a genuine request, and my email was required before I could post this.I would give you credit, of course.
Sue Dickinson @61
A few observations:
It is highly unlikely that Brendan will see your comment and even if he does your email address will not be visible to him.
You have never posted a comment on this site using the username MarkOnCan so I cannot verify that you are, as you put it, genuine.
The copyright of the puzzle is probably owned by the Guardian so you would need its permission to publish the puzzle elsewhere.